Art News

Florida museum auctions off antique cars, carousel, bringing in $38.3 million in sales

BOCA RATON (AP).- Two brothers’ unique private museum of classic cars, rare musical instruments and other collectibles was emptied Saturday with the final strike of an auctioneer’s gavel, bringing in $38.3 million in sales. Two days of bidding on 550 lots neared their conclusion with the biggest sale of them all, $3.3 million for the only known surviving 1912 Oldsmobile Limited, more than double its pre-auction estimate. The final tally came in just below the roughly $40 million the auction houses estimated they’d yield. Most of the automobiles sold at or above their estimates, though bids for many of the rare musical instruments came in below expected ranges. The centerpiece of the collection, a stunning custom-built merry-go-round, sold for nearly $1.3 million. “Think of all the friends you could have over,” said the auctioneer, Max Girardo, as the carousel went up for sale. Bob Milhous, 75, and his brother Paul Milhous, 73, spent decades building their collection. The Milhous